$ Shop questions.

So I am sure googling this or something will get me the answer, however I like getting a real time answer from someone currently playing instead, so let me begin.

I heard GW2 has a sorta cash shop, where you can buy ingame currency and use that to purchase things

Now my question is, are there any items on this store that can, from the view point of some players "unfairly" benefit someone? Such as temporary buffs / gear? Increased Exp items, increased crafting items etc, or is it all just cosmetic type items

GW2 looks like a good game, however me personally, I do not like games where they have a cash shop where you can basically be among the top if you dump in tons of $

So I am sure googling this or something will get me the answer, however I like getting a real time answer from someone currently playing instead, so let me begin.

I heard GW2 has a sorta cash shop, where you can buy ingame currency and use that to purchase things

Now my question is, are there any items on this store that can, from the view point of some players "unfairly" benefit someone? Such as temporary buffs / gear? Increased Exp items, increased crafting items etc, or is it all just cosmetic type items

GW2 looks like a good game, however me personally, I do not like games where they have a cash shop where you can basically be among the top if you dump in tons of $

There are some boosters that increase exp gain or karma gain for an hour. However that only is unfair because it saves the player time. It has no real advantage except saving a bit of time. You don't need to rush to 80 since PvP is auto scaled to 80 and all PvE content is down scaled to a certain level. The only reason to rush to 80 fast is if you want to see the only lvl 80 content but again that's just if you want to save time from leveling.

So I am sure googling this or something will get me the answer, however I like getting a real time answer from someone currently playing instead, so let me begin.

I heard GW2 has a sorta cash shop, where you can buy ingame currency and use that to purchase things

Now my question is, are there any items on this store that can, from the view point of some players "unfairly" benefit someone? Such as temporary buffs / gear? Increased Exp items, increased crafting items etc, or is it all just cosmetic type items

GW2 looks like a good game, however me personally, I do not like games where they have a cash shop where you can basically be among the top if you dump in tons of $

There is no among the top, because this game has no raids, and none of the perks you can get will make you particularly stronger in PvP either, you can level faster, you can get karma faster (which you can use to buy gear or put towards a legendary), you can get bonus exp from crafting which again, helps you level faster... but nothing that will do anything other than save you a bit of time. Then there are the cosmetic things. You can buy keys for black lion chests which can contain boosts including very very minor damage and armor consumables - but it's worth noting that you can find those in the world.

It's also kinda crucial to realise that you can buy gems either with gold, or with cash... so everything you can buy with cash, you can get with in game gold from playing the game - there is absolutely nothing in existence that you can ONLY buy with real money.

Cash shop items fall into 3 loose catagories.
First one is the boosts. Boosts are not useable in PVP and the only effect the have is to let you spend money instead of time leting you acumeulate things like karma or XP faster. There are a few boosts like added armor speed or damage but agian these are not useable in PVP so no advantage there and PVE is balanced around not haveing those boosts. They can make things a bit easier but nothing a bit of effort cant solve.

Second catagory is account services. Things like added bank slots, character slots, bag slots, remote bank/trade post access, and eventualy server transfers. some of these are prety standard fare in even some sub based MMO's cash shop.

Third catagory is cosmetic fluff. Costumes, character re customizations, mini pets. Nothing more than digital bling that offers you no in game advantage beyond the "Ohh Shiny" factor.

Theres arguably a 4th gambling catagory when you consider the black lion keys and dye packs but keys really only just grant you random items that could be purchased directly from the gem shop. You may spend less on the key than you would buying the items you get individualy but then agian you cant pick what you get so you risk geting items you have no use for.

Still as others have said its all a tradeoff of time vs money. You can quite easily farm in game gold and trade those for gems to buy anything out of the store.

It should be mentioned that the experience booster item does not boost total exp gain, but rather only the amount gained from creature kills, which itself is tiny in comparison to heart and event exp. Much as has already been stated, the boosting items available for purchase from the shop are purely for saving time. All the other items in the shop are for convenience or vanity purposes.

It should also be mentioned that the most of the boosts in the cash shop in GW2 also drop from the Black Lion Chests that can be opened with keys that occasionally drop from monsters/bosses/quest rewards. So there isn't really a huge boost to people who purchase.

I think the biggest thing with the cash shop right now is that you can exchange that currency for gold. Which is extremely difficult to farm end game.